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Have you ever watched a stock triple right under your nose without participating? Don't worry; it happens to the best of us. But I'm a big believer that a stock trades well for reason, so it's best to look under the hood and find out why to make sure we're not missing out on the next big discovery.

Tirex Resources (TXX-TSXv) came roaring out of the gate on October 19^th, 2007 (Black Friday actually) and has never looked back. A $.50 cent IPO now trading at well over $3 with over half of its float traded since the IPO date. What's all the hype about?

It's the chance for multiple, "Company Maker" deposits.

Tirex acquired the 344 square km "Mirdita" project that covers most of the historic mining district in Albania. This is a very interesting story and it reminds me of our Albanian oil play three years ago. Though this is a mining deal, the circumstances of the opportunity are the same.

For years the former Soviet government ran the natural resources exploration efforts in Albania. Generally they made a mess of things due to their archaic exploration methods and their disregard for efficiency. As a result, Albania's mining prospects have never been truly explored using modern mining methods. Based on the historic data that had been locked up for years in an old dusty filing cabinet in the Ministry of Mines office, it seems the Russians were actually scratching the surface of a potential world class Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) District in Albania.

This could be a really big deal for Tirex. VMS deposits account for some of the most famous mineral deposits in the world and represent true "company-maker" potential. What Tirex may have here is not just a portfolio of deposits but a significant Mining District akin to Noranda or Flin Flon.

VMS deposits are a result of metal-rich hydrothermal solutions discharging onto or near the sea floor to form bodies of copper, zinc, gold and/or silver-rich mineralization.

"Historical data suggests that the Tirex property has the potential to host a large VMS base metal district." (NI43-101 Technical Summary Report, Mirdita Project, Albania, 2007)

Sifting through the 43-101 report also suggests that the project is host to not just one, but 17 known deposits. An estimated 10 Million tonnes of copper bearing rock of un-specified grades were mined by outdated mining methodologies. Exploration was only conducted at surface, once again a very archaic way to look for multi billion dollars worth of ore. Tirex was the first to recognize there were several deposits that were left untouched but had rather large exploration potential. These virgin deposits were not mined because they contained high concentrations of zinc, a very valuable metal at today's price. This presents another interesting opportunity for Triex. Untapped copper/zinc deposits plus the zinc that had been mined as a by product ended up in the mine tailings that can now be retrieved.

In early 2007, Tirex flew the first ever airborne electromagnetic survey in the country to help identify drill targets for a 2008 exploration campaign. The strong speculation surrounding this stock is based on the fact that the old Soviet data, though non-compliant, is still very prospective. Investors are betting that Tirex is indeed sitting on a VMS District. If true, this stock could go to the moon. As I always say though, the drilling will tell the tale.

Tirex has a huge upper hand having the status of a "first mover" in the country. With the first airborne survey in hand, they were able to clearly define the 17 known deposits and also outline many more potential deposits that were analogous to the known areas.

So what do we do since the stock has already tripled? We look at some valuations. The three hottest discoveries in Canada (NOT, VMS, KXL) all commanded market caps in the range of $300M to $600M off a couple of outstanding drill holes from one area.

TXX has a market cap of around $150M now -obviously historic mining was already profitable with metal prices a fraction of what they are today so what could market cap be worth if they pulled out some economic grades in today's market? I'll leave that up to you to decide.

TXX is clearly going to be one of the most exciting exploration plays this junior market has seen in a long time. Watch it, watch it closely, and don't let it slip from your radar. This one could be big; speculation could drive it even higher when they start drilling and maybe we'll even see that $5 target that some European analyst just pegged it at. Who knows, it's still an exploration play but with the historic data in hand and the application of modern mining methods, they have an above average shot at success. Stay tuned.